The National Assembly’s Select Committee on Health on Tuesday presented its report following an investigation into circumstances that led to the deaths of Gambian children.
The report, however, indicated that "Maiden Pharmaceuticals Ltd. is culpable and should be held accountable for exporting the contaminated medicines that was linked to the death of at least 70 children in The Gambia 2022."
The investigation of AKI started in July 2022 with at least 32 cases and 28 deaths being reported.
In November, President Adama Barrow said the government would take measures to provide essential drugs to Gambians while regulations are reviewed as AKI was still under investigation.
During the debate, several other lawmakers called on the National Assembly Select Committee on Health to deepen its investigation and come up with more substantial recommendations.
Hon. Omar Jammeh, the National Assembly Member (NAM) for Janjanbureh Constituency argued that the Medicine Control Agency (MCA) is not fulfilling its mandate and therefore “they don’t deserve to be paid salaries.”
“We are allocating a budget to MCA and they still cannot provide quality services for the citizens. This is something we should not be encouraging,” he added.
Hon. Omar Jammeh, alongside Hon. Barrow called on the Health minister Dr. Ahmadou Samateh to officially resign with immediate effect.
“In my view the minister should resign and go on to do something better,” Hon. Barrow stressed.
Among other recommendations from the report is an order for the Medicines Control Agency to put a ban on all Maiden Pharmaceutical products and blacklist them.
“The Ministry of Health should become more vigilant and play an effective oversight over the MCA and PCG to ensure that they are effectively executing their functions, without interfering in their
operations. Therefore, the Select Committee recommended for the government through the MoH to speed up reviewing of the laws and regulations governing the pharmacy and drug regime in The Gambia and table it before the National Assembly,” the report states.
“The Medicines and Related Products Act should be amended to give clear and direct powers to the MCA to regulate and impose sanctions on the sector without having to seek the approval of the Minister of Health. This is to prevent interference and ineffectiveness of the Agency and its decisions.”
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